


resolution

by Griffin Raynor (TheEbonHawk)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: (but only minor hurt), Board Games, Co-Sleeping, Destiny Trio, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Fun and Mischief, Hot Chocolate, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Kissing at Midnight, Late Night Conversations, Multi, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, New Years, Nightmares, Polyamorous fluff, Polyamory, Romance, Sharing a Bed, Sorikai - Freeform, Three Way Kiss, Walks On The Beach, late night walks, post-kh3, splash fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:46:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22445059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEbonHawk/pseuds/Griffin%20Raynor
Summary: Sora, Kairi, and Riku spend New Year's Eve together, grateful to be home on the Islands.
Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 32





	resolution

Sora was giddy as he sat down in Riku’s living room with him and Kairi, gathered around the low coffee table with crossed legs on the floor. Kairi opened up the box of the board game she had brought, and Sora helped her set it up as Riku got up and wandered to the kitchen. By the time they’d finished unfolding the board, arranging the pieces, and sorting the cards, Riku had come back with three steaming mugs of hot chocolate, carrying two in one hand and one in the other. He handed one to Sora and one to Kairi before sitting back down with his own. 

Sora smiled and wrapped his hands around the warm mug, relishing the sweet smell of the chocolate. He took a too-large sip too soon, almost burning the edge of his tongue, but it was worth the risk to satisfy his impatience. Riku and Kairi chuckled and shook their head at him, Kairi setting her own mug down to let it cool first and Riku blowing gently on his. 

“Alright,” Kairi began, grinning brightly as she began shuffling the main deck of cards. “You guys will love this game.” She said it very casually, but there was an underlying certainty to it, and since she had a pretty good idea what her boys liked, she was probably right. She started dealing the cards, one pile for each of them and one for herself. 

“Don’t look at them now - we’ll draw them when we need them.” 

Sora watched as she distributed all the cards, straightening his pile without overturning any once she was done. Kairi sat back and explained the rules of the game, and Sora’s mind drifted a little bit even though he was  _ trying  _ to pay attention - it was just a lot of information at once. He learned better by playing, anyway, so he wasn’t worried. 

He ended up being terrible at it, though. The competition was really between Riku and Kairi, and it was fierce. Riku was engaging in some light-hearted trash talk every time he got an advantage, and Kairi was less overtly aggressive, but she kept grinning smugly at him sideways whenever she got ahead. Sora lagged behind both of them the whole game with little hope of catching up, but he didn’t really care much because it was just so much fun watching them race to the finish, getting increasingly excited with each turn. 

In the end, Riku reached the final square first, but the card he drew set him back two, giving Kairi the opportunity to swoop in and claim the victory. Her eyes gleamed as she slammed her piece on the winning square and jumped up, throwing the remainder on her cards on the board. “YES!” she cried, pumping her fists in the air and giggling. 

Riku laughed, too, playfully shoving her. “Don’t be a sore winner.”

Kairi spun around in an impromptu victory dance. “You’re just grumpy because you lost!”

“Oh yeah?” Riku pushed her again, this time just enough that she fell over into a pile of pillows that they’d thrown in front of the couch. She landed on the soft bed of cushions, still giggling, but her laughter turned into a squeal when Riku scooted closer and started tickling her sides. 

Kairi kicked softly at Riku’s arm and chest, but she’d have to fight a lot harder if she wanted to discourage him. “Stopppppp!” she whined through her laughter. “So-Sora, help!”

Sora grinned and walked on his knees around the table, coming to Kairi’s side. “Good call, Kairi. Tickling you is a two man job!”

Kairi shrieked in pretend protest as the boys ganged up on her, shaking with laughter until the tickling became too tiring to be fun anymore. “Okay, stop for real now,” she breathed through a laugh, and Sora and Riku both stilled and sat back from her immediately, still smirking as she got the last of her giggles out and wiped her eyes. “You guys are the worst,” she complained, punching them both gently in the arm. 

Sora laughed and kissed her on the cheek. “You love us.”

Kairi shook her head, but she was still smiling too much to fool anybody. She turned around to the couch and where her phone was resting and checked the time. “It’s almost midnight.” She grinned at Riku and then at Sora, her eyes twinkling. 

Riku smirked, glancing between her and Sora. “So who gets to kiss who first?”

Sora blushed, but Kairi had an answer immediately. “I want to kiss you both at the same time!”

Riku frowned thoughtfully and took a sip of his cocoa. “How’s that going to work?”

“We could both kiss her on the cheek?” Sora suggested. 

Kairi shook her head. “Nah, we’ll just mash our faces together. It’ll be super romantic.”

Riku snorted lightly, but neither he nor Sora offered any objections. The boys set their cocoa down as Kairi set up an audible countdown on her phone and they all three scooted closer to each other, knees brushing as they formed a rough circle and leaned in close. 

“Ten, nine, eight,” the phone counted. The kids looked around at each other, all giggling.

“Seven, six, five, four.” Kairi grabbed Sora and Riku each by the hand. The boys glanced at each other and joined their hands as well. 

“Three, two, one.” 

All three leaned in at once, smushing their cheeks together as their lips met in the center. Sora bumped his forehead against Kairi’s, making them both giggle even more, but the three of them mostly succeeded in kissing each other on the corners of their mouths. 

Despite their best efforts, though, it only lasted for a second before they all dissolved into laughter and backed away. Kairi flopped back against the couch, shaking with laughs so hard she had to hold her side. “Well, that sort of worked.”

Riku chuckled dryly and leaned back, folding up a knee to rest his arm on top of it. “It’s not the most effective way. Or the most dignified.” 

Sora rocked back and forth a little, feeling too flustered and silly to sit still. At the same time, he felt too tired to do anything with all that energy. He let out a big yawn, stretching his arms over his head. 

Riku and Kairi had shifted closer, holding hands with their backs against the couch, and from what Sora had caught of that conversation it sounded like they were deciding on another board game to play, but when Sora yawned they both looked at him and smiled with light exasperation. 

“Well,” Kairi sighed. “I guess we’d better get to bed before somebody gets cranky on us.”

Sora made a face that didn’t really help his defense, but he got up to go to bed anyway. Riku and Kairi both stood up with him automatically, but Sora waved his hand. “You guys play whatever game you were talking about, and you can join me later.”

Kairi frowned, looking between Riku and Sora like she was conflicted. Then she figured something out, bouncing on her heels. “How about this? We’ll come tuck you in and say goodnight, and  _ then  _ we’ll play our game.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “How old is Sora, five? Are we his parents?”

But Sora grinned and grabbed them each by the hand. “Yeah, Kairi’s right! You have to kiss me goodnight or I won’t be able to sleep.”

Riku gave a big sigh for show as Kairi and Sora drug him by hand to his room. Sora was, of course, already in his pajamas, so he just climbed into the bed and scooted down to the end, leaving room for Kairi in the middle and Riku on the other side. 

Kairi pulled the covers up to Sora’s chin and kissed his forehead. “Sleep tight, you big baby. I love you.”

Sora squeezed her hand and murmured ‘love you, too,’ before she pulled away to make room for Riku. 

Riku kissed him almost exactly where Kairi had. “Love you, Sora. Happy New Year.” 

Sora tried to reply, but it was drowned out by a yawn. Kairi and Riku laughed at him, and they turned off the light as they left the room, letting the door remain cracked open. 

Sora fell asleep to the sound of them setting up their next board game, laughing and joking as they played. About an hour later he was woken by them both climbing into bed beside him, snuggling up close and falling asleep.

-

It should’ve been a night for pleasant dreams and easy rest, but Kairi didn’t always get what she should. She woke up not really remembering her nightmare or even really being sure she’d had one, but nevertheless she’d been woken suddenly and with a sense of dread. Her first thought was to make sure Sora and Riku hadn’t disappeared, though she’d realize after she calmed down there was no reason to expect they had. She looked frantically to either side of her, only relaxing when she was sure that both of them were curled up beside her and quietly breathing. 

She took a deep breath herself, still shaking a bit as she did so. She didn't mean it to, but the movement was enough to stir Sora. He'd used to be a really sound sleeper, still was under some circumstances, but now it was as if he could sense when his friends were upset and instantly woke up when they were agitated. He rolled over towards Kairi and opened his eyes, blinking blearily at her. 

"Hey, what's wrong."

Kairi shook her head. "I just had a nightmare or something. I'm okay."

But Sora sat up, frowning. "A nightmare? What was it about?"

Kairi shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not even sure it was about anything. I just woke up, and I was scared. I was worried for a second that you or Riku might not be here."

She felt Riku shift behind her, and his hand gently folded itself around her arm. Apparently he'd been woken up too, probably by their talking. "We're here, Kai. We're not going anywhere."

Kairi turned and looked at him, gave him a small smile. "I know." She laid back down, relaxing further as Riku scooted closer with his chest against her back, wrapping an arm around her, and Sora snuggled up to her front, letting her wrap her own arms around him. Sora was still frowning a bit, and there was the slightest tension in Riku's arms, but Kairi felt calmer in the moment with the proof that they were both right next to her.

The calm, however, was not enough for her to get back to sleep. She resolutely kept her eyes closed for a while, trying to force sleep to come, or at least force herself to be ready for it, but eventually she got bored of waiting. She grabbed Sora's phone to check the time. He had dozens of text notifications from almost everyone in his contacts responding to his mass "Happy New Year's!!!!' text. Kairi was pretty sure a lot of them were on a different calendar than Destiny Islands, being on other worlds, but everyone seemed to appreciate the sentiment at least. 

The time showed 3:30 am. Kind of a terrible time to be stuck awake, especially after staying up until 1 in the first place. She lowered the phone back to the bedside table and scrunched her eyes closed stubbornly, trying once again to go to sleep by pure force of will.

She had decided within a moment that she most likely wasn’t going to make it, but she gave it another couple minutes anyway. Then she sighed lightly, sitting up against the pillows and headboard. She had hoped the boys would go back to sleep and stay that way, but they were still too aware of her. Sora cracked his eyes open again, and Riku sat halfway up with her, leaning on his elbow. 

“Still can’t sleep?” Riku asked. She knew by his tone, and by the fact that she’d kept vigil with him on his own sleepless nights, that he understood completely. She knew Sora did, too. 

Kairi sighed. “I think I’m going to go outside. Sit on the beach or something.”

She didn’t ask them to come, didn’t expect them to get out of bed, but as she scooted free of them to climb off the bed and grabbed a sweater to wrap around herself, Sora pushed the covers off himself and stepped to the floor, rubbing leftover sleep from his eyes, and Riku hopped up and slid his feet into some sandals. Kairi stopped for a second, looking at them both. Then she smiled and padded out of the bedroom, both of them following right behind her.

-

Riku couldn’t help yawning as he and Sora followed Kairi out of the house and through town towards the beach, but he wasn’t really mourning the lack of sleep. After everything he’d been through the last few years, all the wandering away from home and missing Kairi and Sora either in turns or both at the same time, he had to be grateful for moments like this - seeing the town bathed in starlight, Kairi and Sora leading him through it.

While Riku had thought to put on shoes, both of them were walking barefoot. Kairi seemed unbothered by it, either because she was being careful enough not to step on anything uncomfortable or because she simply refused to react to anything she did step on. Sora, by contrast, seemed to be stumbling over every rock and stick in their path, grunting and hopping every time he hurt his feet but not making any significant effort to be more careful.

Riku snorted and shook his head at him. Fortunately for Sora, they were at the end of the path and finally reaching the beach. The sand was softer and less covered in irritants here, and Sora finally relaxed as he entered his element, his clumsy footing turning into a comfortable stride. 

Kairi headed straight to the water’s edge, walking into the shallow waves that lapped at the shore. Sora sat down close enough to let the water wash over his feet while sitting in slightly drier sand. Riku sat down on the other side of him, propping up a knee and resting his arm on it once again. 

Together with Sora, he watched Kairi wade quietly into the water up to her ankles, holding her cardigan around her. It wasn’t very cold on the island, even on a January night, but there was a bit of a breeze, especially out here on the ocean. 

After a while, Kairi started to splash lightly in the water, and Sora almost instantly clambered up to join her. They quickly got involved in a splashing battle, all thoughts of staying warm and dry abandoned. 

Riku sat back, content to watch his friends goof off from the safety of the beach, but Kairi met eyes with Riku, grinning mischievously. She scooped a handful of saltwater and flung it at Riku. He jumped as his sleepshirt got half-soaked, but instead of being annoyed he grinned and jumped up, running into the shallows to join the fight.

Kairi beamed at him and immediately began scooping and kicking huge arcs of water in his direction. Riku ducked and dodged as much as he could, whereas Sora and Kairi made no effort to dodge at all. After Kairi sucessfully soaked all the remaining dry spots on Riku’s shirt, he leaned down and dipped his hands in the waves, bringing them up in a flash and forcing a ridiculous amount of water to splash over her head. Kairi yelped in indignant delight as she was drenched with saltwater from head to toe, her hair darkened and clinging to her skin. 

Sora paused in splashing Riku to laugh at her, and her eyes snapped to his as her expression turned into a vengeful smirk. She pounced, jumping at Sora and knocking him down into the water, and just like that the splashing battle had turned into full out war. Kairi clambered up from tackling Sora and turned on Riku, leaping on him in an attempt to push him over.

Riku, being bigger than Sora and also more prepared for the assault, swayed and laughed but did not fall over. Kairi grunted and kept trying to push him over, and Sora stumbled to his feet and joined her, jumping on Riku with enough force to knock all of them off their feet and into the water together. 

Riku was still laughing as they fell, so he got a mouthful of seawater, but he was used to that. He simply wrestled his way free from the other two and stood up, coughing a bit from the salt, smirking at his friends, who were sitting in the shallows and grinning. 

"Okay, you guys got me. Can I surrender now?"

They just giggled at him, but they relaxed, their hunger for antics evidently satisfied. Kairi leaned back, staring at the stars.

Riku glanced at Sora and saw that he was looking at Kairi. He sat down cross-legged in the water and watched both of them as the tiny waves lapped at his knees.

Kairi alternated between watching the sky and the sea, scooting over to lean against Sora. Her feet drifted so they were touching Riku's leg, keeping her in contact with both of them as she looked out into the world.

Sora watched with her, but he kept glancing at her face and smiling. Riku knew what he was thinking. It's good to be home.

After a while, Kairi let out a quiet little sigh. Riku was worried for a second that she was upset again, and he saw from the way Sora frowned that he was thinking the same thing. But Kairi smiled.

"You know, I'm glad we got the chance to see some other worlds, but I'm happy we're back in this one." 

Riku blinked, looking out over the horizon. Not so long ago, he wouldn't have agreed. He'd been so anxious to get away from here, so suffocated by the same place. But while other worlds were amazing, and he wanted to visit them often, he'd learned to appreciate his home. These islands, this gorgeous sky... But most of all, his home was these two.

It was the subtext to Kairi's statement, something she'd also said many times and many ways since they'd made it home. They had each other back. That was the best gift they could have ever asked for. 

Riku had lost faith more than a few times. He remembered being convinced he had to walk his path alone, that Sora and Kairi would never forgive him. He'd yearned for this day without ever believing it would come. 

Kairi nudged him with her foot. "Hey, Riku, you okay?"

Riku frowned. He realized his eyes were getting misty, and not just from the seawater. He chuckled to himself. "Yeah, just thinking." He glanced up just as a shooting star streaked across the sky. Kairi and Sora watched it too, soft smiles cast in starlight. 

His heart warmed. He smiled at them his hand dipping in the water. "Hey, guys... Happy New Year. I love you."

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to go up on January 1st but I didn't finish it in time lol. Please leave a comment if you liked it! Happy 2020 and happy Re:Mind!


End file.
